[PatrickHenry]

So, in your world, the only way to test the theory that Shakespeare (rather than, say, Francis Bacon) wrote the Shakespearean canon would be to clone Shakespeare, give the clone a supply of ink, parchment, and quills, and observe the result?

You got it. Provided you could do this repeatedly.

You are not guilty, Mr. Simpson, because we, the jury, saw no repetition of your crime in the lab.

[steve-b]

Yep. For example, according to Last Visible Dog, we must accept that the sun is in fact Apollo's fiery chariot, unless and until we have established some alternative theory by creating a second sun in the laboratory.

(Oh, and stand back. FAR back. Fusing a few hydrogen atoms won't prove these newfangled atheistic notions about the sun, any more than resistant insects and bacteria prove evolution by natural selection. It has to be a second sun every bit as big and bright as the first one, by gum!)